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baseball

…delicate balance between offense and defense, statistics also reveal much of baseball’s history on the playing field. Lengthening the pitching distance to 60 feet 6 inches (18.4 metres) in 1893 initially touched off an offensive barrage. But increasing the size of the plate in 1900, counting the first two foul…

To meet the offensive force of the team at bat, the rules provide the fielding team with ways of making outs. A putout removes the player from offensive play until his next turn at bat. The batting team’s inning continues until three putouts are…

football

Pass defenses had always been either man-to-man or zone (each back covering an area). In the 1970s, when zone defenses virtually eliminated long passes, strong running games—featuring backs such as Buffalo’s O.J. Simpson, Miami’s Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, and Pittsburgh’s Franco Harris and Rocky Bleir—dominated…